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Looking out over the hills of the Barossa Valley is this unique home affectionately labelled ‘the Glass House’. Designed by leading Adelaide architect Max Pritchard the house is unusually linear in design – it is 60 metres in length but only a single room wide in the main living areas. To optimise space, a long hallway runs along one side connecting the bedrooms and the bathrooms.

Perched on the highest point of the block and with a lengthy northern elevation, this house naturally takes advantage of the warmth and light provided by the sun, particularly during the winter months, whilst allowing the owners to enjoy sweeping views of the valley below.

The skillion roof of the building makes a striking statement as it is a continuous plane along the length of the entire home. The house itself sits on a number of levels conforming to the slope of the land. These level changes are accommodated by a timber ramp in the connecting hall.

The home featured in the third season of the ‘Grand Designs Australia’ television show late last year.

Details

G.James Glass & Aluminium – Adelaide were contracted to supply and install the approximately 180m² of windows and doors. All the aluminium joinery was finished in Clear Anodised and glazed with 24mm insulated glass units (IGU’s) with required compliance to a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) of 12.5. Given the chilly winters in South Australia and the large area of windows and doors, double glazing was the ideal selection as it helps to minimise heat loss – maintaining a comfortable environment within the home. The clever design of the house allows the sun’s heat to penetrate deep into the home during winter – while large eaves shade the glazing during the hot summer months.

There are a number of large fixed windows in the home. Due to their size, two of our commercial framing systems were used for these windows – front glazed 451 Series framing and 651 Series double framing.

The southern elevation contains ten windows designed as a trapezoidal shape to fit with the gentle taper of the building. These windows have a casement attached, which is also trapezoidal. It was a challenge to create these unusually shaped windows at exactly the right angle, but this was achieved at the first attempt.

All sliding doors in the home were G.James high performance 445-100 Series, fitted with Crimsafe security screens. There are also a number of louvre windows, using 102mm & 152mm louvre blades.

Find out more

G.James have the expertise to help turn your dream home into reality. Our vast experience enables us to take on unusual or complicated jobs and our Australian manufacturing ensures that all your new home is created with highest quality windows and doors. For more information about what we can do for you, have a chat with the friendly staff at to your local G.James branch.

Circa Nundah is a $270 million urban renewal project from developer Property Solutions. Circa Nundah is located on a 2.5 hectare site in Nundah, Brisbane. Masterplanned by Arkhefield, the site will eventually contain three 9 storey residential buildings and an eight storey commercial building. The commercial building – Circa CT1, was completed towards the end of 2012, and work is drawing to a finish on the first residential building, Circa One.

Circa One comprises 42 one-bedroom and 42 two-bedroom apartments, 490m² of ground-level retail space, a residents’ recreation room, manager’s office and two levels of secure basement parking. Apartments generally range from 63 to 101m², with large corner garden terrace units of up to 133m². Construction on Circa Nundah Village is being carried out by Hutchinson Builders.

G.James’ Role

This project called for the supply and installation of G.James’ 165 Series sliding windows, 265 Series awning windows, 445 sliding doors and 475 Series shopfront / fixed windows.

All aluminium framing was extruded and powder coated in-house and finished in Precious Pewter Pearl.

More to come

G.James have enjoyed a close working relationship with Hutchinson Builders over the course of this project. Plans for the next residential building on the site – Circa Dos, were unveiled last year, and construction is just beginning. For further information about this project or our residential solutions please contact the G.James Eagle Farm Branch on (07) 3877 2844 or via email at hilite@gjames.com.au.

The Ipswich City Heart building is the first stage of developer Leighton Properties‘ $1 billion Icon Ipswich project. Designed by Cox Architecture, it is a 42m high, nine-storey office tower which comprises 15,000 square metres (sqm) of commercial space together with 750sqm of ground floor retail and 200 car parks. The building is an A-Grade commercial development, and is targeting a 5 Star Green Star and a 4.5 Star NABERS rating. Nearly all of the office space in the building has been leased to the Queensland government for a term of 15 years. Construction on the project is being overseen by Hutchinson Builders.

G.James’ Role

G.James has been engaged to supply and install window wall and curtain wall along the height of the building. G.James is also providing structural glazing to the basement, ground and upper ground floors, as well as a structurally glazed roof-lite to level 1.

Visual Mockup

Prior to starting on site, G.James constructed a visual mockup to provide a full-scale representation of the colour selection as designed for the building. The mockup allowed colour selections to be seen in proper context, under natural lighting, to ensure the building gives the desired visual effect.

The Façade

G.James is using the 546 series system with black anodised framing for the window wall on the western façade with independent vertical sunshades installed between structural slabs. These vertical fins are in 5 special anodised colours (listed below) which are selectively positioned on each floor to create a pattern.

Sapphire Matte Tornado Red

G.James Residential Bronze

AAF Maroochy Sand

G.James Champagne Bronze

G.James Matte Gold

G.James is using our 546 series system with black anodised framing for the curtain wall to the eastern façade, incorporating gold metallic Alpolic projections and black anodised horizontal sunblades.

The southern and northern faces of the building are a mixture of both window wall and curtain wall fully encapsulating the floors.

The vision glass used in the building is made up of Solarplus DLE55 Low-E glass on green, configured in argon filled IG Units.

The shadow boxes are made up of 6mm green heat-strengthened glass, using 5 different colours (listed below) of backing sheet selectively positioned on each floor to create a pattern.

Dulux PVF2 Mars Red

Dulux PVF2 Gold Dust

Dulux PVF2 Brassed Off

Dulux PVF2 Wax Way

Dulux PVF2 Blonde Girl

PVF2 paints have an excellent service life and are highly resistant to fading. These properties make PVF2 finishes a low maintenance finish of choice for large projects.

Current Status

G.James started site installation in late January, and will continue until approximately May. Overall, construction on the building is progressing well, the concrete structure of the building has been completed and practical completion is expected to be third quarter of 2013.